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Description:

298pp. B&W illus. Fine hardback/VG+ DJ, very slight fading to spine, short closed tear & light creasing at lower spine, a bit of rubbing & soiling, minor edgewear. This illustrated edition of Bradbury's space-age classic includes a biographical sketch of the author and an annotated bibliography of his works up to 1973. It also contains the two additional stories Bradbury added after the first edition of this title. Bookseller Inventory # 6056

About this title:

Synopsis: Leaving behind a world on the brink of destruction, man came to the red planet and found the Martians waiting, dreamlike. Seeking the promise of a new beginning, man brought with him his oldest fears and his deepest desires. Man conquered Mars and in that instant, Mars conquered him. The strange new world with its ancient, dying race and vast, red-gold deserts cast a spell on him, settled into his dreams, and changed him forever. In connected, chronological stories, a true grandmaster enthralls, delights, and challenges us with his vision, starkly and stunningly exposing our strength, our weakness, our folly, and our poignant humanity on a strange and breathtaking world where humanity does not belong.

Review&colon;
From "Rocket Summer" to "The Million-Year Picnic," Ray Bradbury's stories of the colonization of Mars form an eerie mesh of past and future. Written in the 1940s, the chronicles drip with nostalgic atmosphere--shady porches with tinkling pitchers of lemonade, grandfather clocks, chintz-covered sofas. But longing for this comfortable past proves dangerous in every way to Bradbury's characters--the golden-eyed Martians as well as the humans. Starting in the far-flung future of 1999, expedition after expedition leaves Earth to investigate Mars. The Martians guard their mysteries well, but they are decimated by the diseases that arrive with the rockets. Colonists appear, most with ideas no more lofty than starting a hot-dog stand, and with no respect for the culture they've displaced.

Bradbury's quiet exploration of a future that looks so much like the past is sprinkled with lighter material. In "The Silent Towns," the last man on Mars hears the phone ring and ends up on a comical blind date. But in most of these stories, Bradbury holds up a mirror to humanity that reflects a shameful treatment of "the other," yielding, time after time, a harvest of loneliness and isolation. Yet the collection ends with hope for renewal, as a colonist family turns away from the demise of the Earth towards a new future on Mars. Bradbury is a master fantasist and The Martian Chronicles are an unforgettable work of art. --Blaise Selby

Book Description Doubleday & Company, Inc. [1973]., Garden City, 1973. Octavo, illustrations by Karel Thole, cloth. First printing of this edition. First hardcover edition of the complete text. Bradbury's second and most famous book, a collection of closely linked stories about the exploration and colonization of Mars. Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-154. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 255. Pringle, Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels 3. Survey of Science Fiction Literature III, pp. 1348-52. A fine copy in fine dust jacket. An important edition of this classic, and tough to find in nice condition. (#158267). Seller Inventory # 158267